White House: Texas border is no ‘Katrina’

A top White House official on Wednesday defended President Barack Obama’s response to the Texas border crisis and rejected the notion that it could become the president’s “Katrina.”

“It doesn’t make sense to compare this to a natural disaster,” White House Domestic Policy Council Director Cecilia Muñoz said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” when asked about the Hurricane Katrina comparison. “This is a humanitarian situation that we have been on top of from the very beginning.”

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Earlier this week, Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, whose Texas district is situated along the U.S.-Mexico border, said he hoped Obama’s decision not to visit the border wouldn’t be his “Katrina moment.” The congressman was referring to then-President George W. Bush’s widely criticized response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Bush was famously photographed in the aftermath of the storm surveying the damage from above while aboard Air Force One, a photograph he called a “huge mistake” in 2010.

“In this case where there’s a crisis, a leader’s going to be defined on how he or she handles that crisis,” Cuellar said on CNN Wednesday morning. “You can send surrogates to the border, you can be 500 miles away like how he’s going to be in Dallas today, but he ought to go down there.”

Muñoz, though, said Obama mobilized on the problem once it became clear months ago that the influx of undocumented children would be higher than in previous years. Muñoz decried those “trying to turn this situation into a political football” and cited the president’s upcoming meeting on the border situation with community leaders in Texas.

But Cuellar, during an appearance on “Morning Joe” on Wednesday, continued his criticism of Obama, saying that the president’s decision not to visit the border was particularly upsetting because he will be in Texas this week. Obama will be in Texas on Wednesday and Thursday primarily to attend Democratic fundraisers.

“He’s going to be in Texas, but he’s going to be 500 miles away from the border, which makes it even worse when you’re so close, and you can’t even take Air Force One to go down to the border,” the Democratic congressman said.

Cuellar also called into question the White House’s announcement that the president would be meeting with community leaders. “When he talks about meeting with local leaders, last night I got some calls, saying, ‘Who are those local leaders?’ They’re certainly not the local leaders from the border.”

The congressman has recently been critical of the administration’s handling of the crisis, saying last Sunday that the White House has been “one step behind.” On Wednesday, Cuellar also called on congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to pass a bill granting the $3.7 billion in emergency funds the president has requested.

Cuellar in a subsequent interview on MSNBC also called into question’s Obama decision in light of his activities in Colorado Tuesday evening, in which he drank beers and played pool with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper at a Denver establishment.

“When I saw — and I hate to use the word ‘bizarre,’ but under the circumstances — when he is shown playing pool in Colorado, drinking a beer, and he can’t even go 242 miles to the Texas border?” he said in reference to the distance between Austin, Texas, and the border.

Later on Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester defended the president’s decision not to visit the border, saying he has a strong understanding of the situation.

“I don’t think it’s necessary, quite frankly,” the Montana senator said when asked on MSNBC whether Obama should go to the border. Tester said that there were a number of logistical and security issues that likely would made such a visit difficult.

“He should be knowing exactly what’s going on in that border. I think he’s got a good grasp of what’s going on,” he said.